Wax and Wane, 1997
Oil on Canvas
Michael Ananian joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) in 1994, and now serves as a tenured Associate Professor of Painting in the Department of Art.The Weaver Foundation Art Collection includes artwork by a long list of students who have studied with Ananian through the years; Katie Davis, Kathleen Ward, Erik Strom, Scott Raynor, Janet Oliver, J. Adam McGalliard, Justin Life, Robert Igoe, Patrick Leger, Brian Shaw, Nathaniel Underwood, and Chi-Kit Wong. Ananian creates bodies of work in figurative, sequential narratives, many times casting himself, or aspects of himself, as the main characters. Wax and Wane is part of a “suite” based on the theme of twins. With Ananian’s arrival at UNCG, he developed interest in the narrative implications of pairs, dualism and opposition. Wax and Wane is from the twin series which he painted between 1996-1998. Ananian won numerous awards, including his two-time award from the prestigious John Koch Prize for the Best Figurative Painter under the Age of Thirty-five, from the National Academy of Design in New York. Weaver Foundation Collection of UNCG Artists